Student-kidnapped close-to Nigerian Army base
Nigeria student kidnapping near Kaduna army base
Student-kidnapped close-to Nigerian Army base
Gunmen have abducted dozens of students.
from a college in the northern Nigerian state of Kaduna,
authorities say. The attackers stormed the institution in the
town of Mando overnight. State authorities say that 180 students
and staff were rescued by the Nigerian army in the early hours of Friday,
but about 30 students remain missing. It is not yet clear who was
behind the raid on the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation,
which is located near a military training academy.
About 800 students have been seized since
December in several raids on schools
in northern Nigeria. They have all been released after
negotiations with the gunmen.
Parents and relatives gathered
at the college on Friday morning to wait for news on the
fate of their children. Some residents said when they
heard the kidnappers’ gunfire overnight at the college,
they thought it was a military exercise at the military institution.
Witnesses say when the military arrived in the school compound,
the attackers had left. Now troops with tanks
and helicopters have been deployed to try to
rescue the abductees. The BBC’s Ishaq Khalid
in Abuja says this is the first such attack on a college on
the outskirts of a major city most previous abductions
from schools happened in remote areas. Our reporter says
the audacious attack so close to a military site comes as an
Student-kidnapped close-to Nigerian Army base – embarrassment for the Nigerian authorities,
who keep assuring citizens they are trying to
tackle the county’s insecurity. Both the
federal government and the Kaduna state government
say they are averse to negotiations with armed gangs,
many of whom profit from weak security infrastructure
through ransom payments after kidnappings.
A recent report released by Kaduna state authorities
said nearly 3,000 people in the state were killed or
abducted by criminal gangs last year.
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